Lay down your pride and your gun

Greater Northshore Bike Connector Map 1.7.1 – 1 June 2025 – is now available on github, as is MEGAMAP 1.7.1.

Additions and changes since 1.7:

• Extension of bike lanes in Kenmore on 80th Ave NE up to NE 185th/186th street – this is new paint, done because they could; they also made their own city bike map;
• Refinement of intersections with streets on Interurban Trail North in Snohomish County;
• Small additions (short bike lane, shorter trails) around Totem Lake;
• Small addition (short mixed-use trail, pedestrian first but bikes permitted) in northern Woodinville at 130th/132nd;
• Addition of north bike exit from Shoreline North 1 Line station – possibly part of the Trail Under the Rail system? It’s not signed as such but it’s in the right place for it;
• Text cleanup in Redmond, replacing/moving certain street name text which gets cut off on the Greater Northshore map so that it is no longer cut off.

All permalinks continue to work.

If you enjoy these maps and feel like throwing some change at the tip jar, here’s my patreon. Patreon supports get things like pre-sliced printables of the Greater Northshore, and also the completely-uncompressed MEGAMAP, not that the .jpg has much compression in it because it doesn’t.

Thank you! ^_^

Posted via Solarbird{y|z|yz}, Collected.

Here’s a good short piece on Elon Musk’s propaganda campaign to recover/rebuild his image.

Morons, fools, and co-conspirators – by which I mean the bulk of the so-called political press in the United States – will almost uniformly fall for it. They’ll in fact do their very best to fall for it, because it’s a nice story and because it means they can take what they’re being spoon-fed and not have to think about it too hard as they type – much less think about their enabling role in this whole nightmare.

Musk got most of what he wanted. Not all of it, but a lot – particularly in fucking up the government in general, ending all those pesky investigations into all his illegal activities, and in loading himself up with nice fat corrupt government contracts. Cutting medicaid and medicare and throwing women and non-whites out of government were bonus points.

Now he’s partially – I stress partially – stepping away, to a degree because he’s sick of all those people who are equally sick of him, but more I think to try to staunch the bleeding damage he’s caused to his own businesses. Particularly Tesla, where $TSLA share price is so key to all his other leveraged wealth.

(Oh, Elon, so you know, I’ll be at the Tesla Takedown on Tuesday. But if you lock yourself into one of your own burning “cybertrucks” before then, then I’ll be glad to stay home.)

Regardless – the press will absolutely let him off the hook. So will all the people who don’t want to think about anything, and the people who want to assuage their feelings of guilt about being on X or buying one of his shitmobiles.

So I’m asking – can we not all fall for the same stupid fake reputational redemption arc for once? Please? The press will, but… please don’t join them this time, okay?

And don’t let others join them either. That’ll be the harder part.

Most of you reading me, you’re probably less likely to fall in.

But ask yourself: will your friends fall for it? Particularly the techier ones, easily distracted by shiny rockets and who still pretend that wasn’t a Hitler salute at the inauguration, the one that matches frame-for-frame to actual Hitler throwing the actual salute?

I think we all know that answer. Try to keep them from buying in.

And if you can’t… don’t go along.

Do that much, if nothing else.

Don’t. Go. Along.

Posted via Solarbird{y|z|yz}, Collected.

A preview linking to this article in The Advocate. Here’s some quotes:

“I looked into all options and a private fund is the most efficient, streamlined way for me to do this,” she said. “Lots of people are offering to contribute, which I truly appreciate, but there are many other women’s rights orgs that could do with the money, so donate away, just not to me!”

It is not the first time Rowling has used her over $1 billion net worth to influence legal cases involving so-called women’s sex-based rights — a dog whistle used by herself and other anti-trans activists to exclude trans people from public spaces and reduce women to their genitals.

Note the “workplace” and “public life.” Note how it – as always – gets expanded. Note that it means everywhere outside your goddamn house.

For now.

Don’t worry, they’ll get there.

And the thing is…

The thing is…

The more she does this, and the more that people keep giving her money by supporting her work despite that, the more that other people of similar mindsets see that it’s safe to follow her example.

It shows her, it shows them, it shows everyone that they will not be punished for trying to persecute and terrorise trans people entirely out of existence. Eradication of trans people is polite politics. It’s respectable. It’s fine.

So if you – in the sense of an arbitrary person – support her work, you are not only confirming her thesis, you are encouraging others to join her and do the same.

This cycle will continue until it can’t because people finally stop handing these fascists their fucking money, which they absolutely will not fucking do.

But if and when that should finally happen, this will finally stop.

And not one minute before.

So the ball’s in your court, Potter fans. Frankly, after decades of watching straights throwing their money at anti-queer eradication activists my entire goddamn life, no matter how explicit and forthright they are about their genocidal aims, you know what? I’m not holding my breath.

But prove me wrong.

Please. Seriously. I’m actually begging you.

Prove me wrong.

Posted via Solarbird{y|z|yz}, Collected.